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Saturday, June 18, 2016

KZNSA SHORT FILMS HUB & JOURNEYMEN EXHIBITION



(Sipho Mpongo: “Born Frees”, Port St Johns - 2014)

The KZNSA Gallery in Glenwood, Durban is once again the Short Films Hub for the 37th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF). In addition, the gallery will be home to opening night film The Journeymen’s accompanying photographic exhibition entitled Twenty Journey from June 18 to 24.

Twenty Journey conveys the photographic journey of three South African photographers, the protagonists in the film The Journeymen - Sipho Mpongo, Wikus de Wet and Sean Metelerkamp. The trio travelled some 24,000 km around South Africa for over seven months, speaking to a fascinating array of different people that they came across, capturing images that represented those particular individuals and places. Collectively, these images tell a South African story in a captivating pictorial ensemble, shining a light on the intimate and interwoven nature of the people that make up a nation striving for identity and authentic restoration.

“In their documentary, the frame is no longer still and installed in white gallery walls. The frame is moving through the mundane, the exciting, the discovered, the racial, the gendered, the rich, the poor, the educated, the illiterate, the intersections and the Journeymen,” says Khanyisile Mbongwa, curator of the Twenty Journey exhibition. “It is a project that, in its conception, questions the very existence of the horizon, set up within the context of a collapsing rainbow nation. It tasked itself to ask democracy questions about “Born-Frees”, “Land” and “Idiosyncrasies”.

Mbongwa is a Cape Town based award-winning curator and performative installation artist. She is the co-founding member of Gugulective, robust and innovative arts collective and co-founder of VASIKI Creative Citizens. Her work has been seen across South Africa, Germany, Spain, Sri Lanka, Scotland and New York among others.

The KZNSA Gallery in 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, will be the hub for the exhibition and short films that are part of DIFF. The gallery is open Tuesday to Friday 09h00 to 17h00, Saturday 09h00 to 16h00 and Sundays 10h00 to 15h00. Screenings of the short films are at 18h00 and 20h00.

For films in the shorts line-up see the DIFF programme booklet available at the DIFF venues, or the website. www.durbanfilmfest.co.za.

The Durban International Film Festival takes place from June 16 to 26. The Festival includes nearly 200 theatrical screenings, as well as the Wavescape Film Festival and various industry initiatives, including the 9th Talents Durban programme (in cooperation with the Berlin Talent Campus) and the 7th Durban FilmMart co-production market (in partnership with the Durban Film Office).

The 37th Durban International Film Festival is organised by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, with support from the National Film and Video Foundation, Durban Film Office, eThekwini Municipality, German Embassy, Goethe Institut, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts and Culture and a range of other valued partners.